PresenTenseLA - Transforming the Jewish Community, One Idea at a Time

Nov 07, 2012 | The Wire

“Welcome to Hollywood! What's your dream? Everybody comes here; this is Hollywood, land of dreams... Always time to dream, so keep on dreamin'.” – Pretty Woman

The quote above is not particularly poetic, but it holds a truth about Los Angeles – this is a city built on dreams and filled with creators, builders, artists and those who choose to see the world as it should be, rather than how it is. It is with that dreaming spirit that The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, with the support of The Jewish Community Foundation, is launching PresenTenseLA.

PresenTenseLA is a five month fellowship program that gives Jewish innovators the business tools, leadership skills and connections to turn their creative dreams into ventures that will successfully engage, inspire and transform the our community, our city, or our world. Applications are now being accepted.

Unlike other fellowships, this is not a program with the broad mission of “leadership training.” PresenTenseLA’s mission is to give Jewish young adults practical skills to be able to create, launch and sustain their own projects that will transform the Jewish community – whether they be entrepreneurial ventures (projects fellows create entirely on their own) or intra-preneurial ventures (projects fellows create in collaboration with an existing organization to expand or revamp their work).

PresenTenseLA is part of the Community Entrepreneur Partnership program from PresenTense Group - which since 2006 has been fostering innovation with their fellowship programs and are now operating in 11 cities around the world. The curriculum is inspired by human-centered design theory championed by Tim Brown of IDEO. The fellows develop their ventures in three phases: Inspiration, Ideation and Implementation – learning along the way key concepts including: